Around the World in Eighteen Days
by Lonian
Summary: The inhabitants of Spherus Magna have to find a new place for their capital city. Tribe leader Raanu leads a group of five Glatorian/Agori in a trek around the newly reformed planet, encountering some very interesting beings on the way.
1. Prologue

Around The World In Eighteen Days

~_Spherus Magna Round Trip_

Before the trip

Raanu looked at the masses of Agori, biomechanical creations of the Great Beings called Matoran(though there weren't much of them, yet), and Glatorian milling about him. They had come when he called, but now no one was paying any attention to him.

Well, if they didn't want to listen, it's their loss.

"Attention, all beings!" he yelled. No one responded.

_Yes! Permission for me to use drastic measures! _Smiling, Raanu fired an exploding Thornax fruit at a stretch of empty space before him, causing a mighty explosion with a healthy bang. _Now _that_ is fun! _And he would be guaranteed to garner their attention this way.

"Now, will everyone listen here?" he asked sweetly. "Very good. Now, in order for me to win a large bet against the village elder of Iconox－er, I mean to find a good place to settle down on the reformed Spherus Magna, I need to put together an expedition that will travel all over the planet. Of course, if they find a suitable place, _within eighteen days_, they will be rewarded. Not richly, but enough. Any volunteers?" he sucked in a deep breath, choking on a passing speck of dirt. Apparently, the recent fight with the two giant robots had raised an uncommon enough of dust and grit. That probably had more to do with the leveling of a mountain range or two.

"I'll need someone who can drive a caravan, a guard, a chronicler to record the many wonders of our world, and a cook," Raanu continued. He loved long speeches.

"It sounds wonderful!" Someone spoke up. All the Agori turned to stare at the mentally unsound one who had actually dared to volunteer.

"Thank you, Tarduk. You can be our guide," said the village leader. "Now, any more volunteers? Speak up, or I'll have to pick you out myself!"

The frantic crowd jostled each other, all the while shrinking away from the Agori up front.

Gresh said slowly, daring himself to speak, "I think you need my help. I'm in." Another mentally disturbed being.

"Very good," Raanu continued. "Two down, three to go!"

In the end, five victims…um…_volunteers_－Gresh as the driver, Ackar as the guard, Tarduk as the guide, Berix as the chronicler, and Kiina as the cook (not that she'd wanted to cook－Ackar and Gresh made her)－agreed to go along on the expedition, excluding Raanu.

They all piled into an old caravan that Raanu had scrounged up, which was driven by a pair of sand stalkers and stocked with enough food for three weeks (now that Spherus Magna had been green'd, water was no problem). Of course, that meant there was was next to no space for the six travelers, especially with a few weapons thrown in for good measure.

Thus uncomfortably seated, they began their journey.


	2. Day 1

Day 1

"Okay," said Raanu, leader of the expedition. "We start at the White Quartz Mountains, since everyone knows that Bara Magna is not fit for inhabitation. And also because Tarduk has been by that way before."

"Oh, yes!" Tarduk agreed enthusiastically. "There're only death-defying canyons, a forest full of half-dead warriors with knives, a Great Beings' laboratory, most of the Element Lords, and a couple hundred vicious beasts down that way. Sure, why not?"

"Excuse me," Gresh interrupted him, ignoring the sarcasm. "Ever since Mata Nui won against the other giant robot, the desert has been flourishing with flora. Not that I mind, although he has most probably undermined the delicate balance of the desert ecosystem. We might just as well start right here."

"What is he talking about?" Berix whispered to Kiina.

"He wants us to start here, in Bara Magna," she translated.

"Well, I suppose the boy has a point," Raanu conceded. "And Berix, you have to draw an up-to-date map of all the places we travel to. Gresh, start driving."

The caravan inched forward.

Berix dug around his pack, looking for parchment, pen, and ink. Things started flying through the air, bonking Kiina, who was unlucky enough to sit beside him, on the helmet.

She picked up the metal claw which had landed on her head and stared at it incredulously. "You really _do_ have a metal claw!"

"Actually, I have two," the scavenger replied. "They're even better than shoes…hey, give it here."

Kiina tossed the claw to him, just as he triumphantly tugged out a roll of parchment.

"I've got the paper, now I just need a pen and ink!"

"Good, we've started," said Raanu, oblivious to the exchange around him. "So let's start exploring the 'un-desert'."

* * *

By the time the sun beat down from the top of the sky, the travelers were camped next to the flourishing Skrall River and preparing their midday meal.

"Ackar, could you light this up?" Kiina had decided not to use the stove they had brought, instead gathering a pile of firewood with a spit raised over it.

"Gladly," he replied. The fire Glatorian shot a beam of fire from his sword, starting a roaring fire.

"Argh, I'll get the two of you for this," Kiina muttered to herself as she filled a pot with water and hung it on the spit to boil.

After a span of time, when everybody had choked down the practically inedible stew, the caravan was on the road again.

"Look, we're at the ruins of Tajun!" Berix exclaimed. He hurriedly jotted down the location of Tajun and its present condition on the map: _Can only barely be seen as a village; the whole place is crawling with plants. Oasis is still intact, though._

"Can you be more enthusiastic about our destroyed village?" Kiina told him drily.

"Of course I can!" He immediately started being _even more enthusiastic_ by jumping up and down on the caravan.

"Would you please settle down?" Gresh asked him. "You're going to overturn us."

"Sorry."

"Just my luck to get stuck in a wagon with these guys," Ackar remarked.

"And girl," Kiina corrected him.

"Stop bickering," Raanu said. "Let's just keep going."

They spent the rest of the afternoon uneventfully going north along the Skrall River. Hopefully, they could reach Tesara by the next day.

Night fell with the making of an overnight camp in the ruins of Arena Magna. While they were eating, Berix wrote: _Arena Magna, in the middle of a river once more but still in ruins. Plants all around, too._

They settled down for the night in their tents.


	3. Day 2

Day 2-Part 1

Kiina vaguely heard two voices conversing outside. Yawning, she splashed her face with water, then exited her tent.

"I'm sure you know that, if we keep going at this speed, there's no way we'll be able to make the trip in time," Gresh was saying to a sleepy Raanu.

"Yeah, I know. So speed up," the Agori mumbled. "Make some jet packs or something. You've got elemental powers, don't you?"

"You're right, we do," the jungle Glatorian brightened. "We can use the stove, with Ackar's help, as a rocket booster!"

"Go ahead and try it while I try to get us some breakfast. Good morning, Kiina. Would you be so kind as to prepare some food for all of us?"

"Maybe…" she replied thoughtfully. "If you all want to get poisoned."

"Forget it, then." Raanu puttered off to the caravan and pulled out something. "Anyone want fish porridge?"

"Come on," Gresh wheedled. "You have to try it, or the old guy will drive us all up the wall!"

"Whose idea was this?" Ackar asked suspiciously. The idea of spending the whole trip with Raanu ranting about how slow they were was horrifying, to say the least.

"Mine, of course! I had to come up with something."

"I know I'm going to regret this," the fire Glatorian groaned. With Gresh and Berix's help, they managed to secure the stove perpendicular to the back of the caravan.

"Does anyone _else_ think this is a ridiculous idea?" Kiina, watching them, asked.

"Let's see," replied Berix sarcastically. "Only everyone besides me and Raanu. I happen to think it's a fine idea."

"Finished," Gresh declared. "Now, all of you get in."

They proceeded to do so. When the six travelers were squeezed inside, and the two unlucky sand stalkers secured, Ackar leaned over the back, uttered a short prayer, and lit the stove.

The flame sputtered, then caught on. The caravan started to accelerate, reaching a maximum speed of twenty kio an hour.

Ackar was absolutely stunned. Not only had their ridiculous engine substitute actually _worked_, it had gotten them to Tesara, the former twin village, in just over an hour (which was, incidentally, a third of Raanu's original estimated time).

"We stop here for lunch," Raanu proclaimed. "Tarduk and I caught some fish this fine morning, we can have those."

There was a collected sigh of relief from the other travelers.

"We'll be having them fried," Kiina decided grouchily. She still hadn't gotten over being appointed cook. "I found a couple of pots and pans in the trunk today."

"Oh, I brought them," confessed Berix. "I had to take them out of my pack, though, since they were taking up too much space."

"Hmm, you actually managed to do something right, for a change," she mused. "Okay, fire please."

_The fried fish weren't that bad. _Berix had decided to just scarf it down quickly to get started on the Tesara part before the others finished eating. And cleaning.

_Tesara: This region, having already been populated by vegetation before, is now almost unidentifiable from the surrounding jungle. Only the bare soil where the parts of the giant robot lay showed it as a village. The local arena is also all but smothered in vines._

Berix looked up and saw that the aforementioned vines around them had started writhing.

"What business have you here?" a being who seemed to be entirely made out of plant matter boomed.

It was Tarduk who stammered out, "Hello, it s-seems that we m-meet again, l-lord of the green."


	4. Day 2,2

Day 2-Part 2

_Of all the rotten luck, _Tarduk groaned inwardly. No, he hadn't chanced upon a ruin worth digging, he had come upon an Element Lord. Worse, one that he had already met before, the element lord of jungle. _At least I went looking for trouble last time. I didn't ask for anything now!_

He whispered to the three genetically-modified Glatorian, "Don't use your elemental powers if he doesn't know about them, unless you want to become a tree. Trust me."

Louder, the jungle Agori announced to the EL, "We are just travelers on our way, EL of the green."

"Hey, I know you!" The being rasped. "You reek just like the one who burned my forest."

Oops. "No, that was Kirbold. And I don't sti-"

The elemental cut him off. "And my name isn't El. It's Carl, you know, as in Carl Jung-le."

"Okay…" Ackar spoke up, trying to edge away. "May we go now?"

Carl stiffened, staring intently at the three flabbergasted Glatorian. He sniffed. A breeze had picked up their scent and threw it into his face. "There's something wrong about the lot of you…" he waved a hand and thick vines wrapped around the limbs of all the travelers. "You have the reek of my modifiers, better known as the Great Mess-ups," he finished. "_Elemental power?_ What were they thinking? Oh, yes, nothing at all, as usual."

"No, no," Kiina hastily corrected him. "That was yesterday's dinner."

"What do you take me for, a fool?" Carl demanded.

"Hmm, I'd hoped you wouldn't notice that."

The lord of the green snorted. "Enough with you. Tar-what's-your-name, you would probably know my reason to look for the bunch of you."

"Yes, I think I know," Tarduk said, wondering if he was really seeing his life flashing before his eyes, or if the element lord had somehow acquired a new power.

"Very good," Carl turned to the others. "All of you should already know that this little guy here has been to the Valley of the Great Mess-ups _and_ back.

"What did you find in there?" he concluded, eyes blazing.

"I really don't think I should tell you," Tarduk decided. A little more madness couldn't hurt. Well, much, anyway. But when he saw the look on Carl's face, he amended, "Okay, but only if you promise not to use the information to harm anyone on Spherus Magna, and if you see us safely through this trip."

"And perhaps you'd like to tell me why I should agree?"

"How about because _you_ were the one who wanted information from me?" the jungle Agori suggested.

Carl groaned. "I guess I did. Deal done." The vegetation receded to reveal the other residents of Spherus Magna staring at the two of them in horror. Tarduk shrugged and mouthed "What?" to Raanu, whose mouth was gaping open.

_The Element Lords must be going soft,_ Raanu decided. Aloud, he said, "Well, we have to reach the White Quartz Mountains by nightfall, so let's get started."

The element lord in question grinned, a ghastly sight on his face. "No problem."


	5. Day 3

Day 3

Carl looked over his handiwork, satisfied. He had spent half the night adding some finer touches to the Agori's appalling vehicle. Imagine, an Element Lord of his skill and power traveling in such a measly _wagon_! Simply not done. Then he heard something rustling behind him, and turned to greet whatever it was.

"Morning, my dear Carl," the fire Agori mumbled to him. He blinked blearily at the object before him. He could have sworn that just last night, their patched-up caravan had been brown, or at least the color of dirt. Why did he see a mass of vegetation, then? He shook his head, trying to clear it. Then it all came back. Yesterday, and Element Lord named Carl, and vines strangling them. He groaned.

"How do you like the new…modifications?" the element lord in question asked him.

"Erm…what is it that they _do?_"

"Let's see…I added an energy converter to the harness of the two sand stalkers, which can harvest any extra energy they produce in the form of moving, reducing the strain on your poor combustion engine, which I upgraded, by the way. I also grew a sidecar for all our belongings, so they will not fly about. Useful, are they?"

Raanu poked the sidecar. "Of course…if they work." Seeing the look on Carl's face, he hastily amended, "Which, of course, they would."

By noon, they were deep within the glaringly sparkling White Quartz Mountains, huddled in a cave. They had just finished Carl's meal of fresh summoned fruit and vegetables.

"We are lost!" announced Kiina.

"No, we're _not_," argued Berix. He held up a compass and waved it in front of Kiina's face. "He-llo? We're supposed to be going north. This. Is. North."

Kiina reached out and turned it the right side up. She said disgustedly, "Now, _that_ is north. Anyone wonder why we _are_ lost?"

"I don't," volunteered Ackar. "See how far we've come in only half a day? Carl's improvements-and ours, of course- _have_ worked."

"Whatever," mumbled Berix. He pulled out his map and started working. _White Quartz Mountains: They are largely untouched by the recent giant robot demolition spree, unlike the Black Spike Mountains. Nothing in here but snow, snow, ice, and more ice._

"All finished?" Carl absorbed the plants growing in the cave. "Let's keep going!"

"By this rate, we'll probably be in Bota Magna tomorrow," commented Gresh. "Good, then we can help in the rebuilding."

_Rebuilding?_ Raanu thought. _Ah, oh yes. Melding Spherus Magna together again, blah blah blah..hard work and more hard work._

They all piled into the improved transport, which sped off with Carl at the wheel, deeper into the icy mountains.


	6. Day 4

Day 4-Part 1

Berix woke up in a cave. Shivering. Again. Last night, they had been driven into a snowstorm so bad, Carl swore that one of his brethren had to be behind it. However, as no one was able to even see his fingers in front of hiss face, the authencity of of his claim went unverified.

The water Agori got out of his sleeping bag, stood up, and shook it. A hail of miscellaneous objects rained down on the floor. Silently berating himself for being so sloppy, he scrabbled to pick them up and stuff them back into his pack, where they belonged. By the time Berix finished properly arranging his belongings, the rest of the camp had arisen, and Carl was, once more, growing fruit stands out of the stark cavern floor.

"'Morning," Ackar mumbled to Berix. "You talk in your sleep."

"I do?" Berix said, surprised. He hastily plucked a red fruit from the vine and chewed on it. _Hmm, delicious! Much better than Kiina's cooking!_

* * *

After two hours worth of Ackar vaporizing the snow in their path, the old guy needed a break. The travelers took refuge in their caravan for a mid-morning snack until the howling wind abruptly stopped.

Tarduk stepped out and gasped at the vast expanse of pristine, obscenely bright snow. He'd never thought that snow, like sand, would be blinding when the sun shone brightly enough on it. "Can anyone see Bota Magna?"

Carl pointed to a faraway speck of green. "It's over that way. There's so much plant life there that I can sense it even here, at about a week away."

"A week?" Raanu gasped. _It's taken us _four days_ just to reach this place!_

The element lord glanced at Raanu's dumbstruck expression. "Relax. At the rate we're _really_ going, we should be in Bota Magna by sundown."

The tribe elder glared at him. "Then let's get going, and hope we don't run into any more _nasty_ surprises."

"Actually, I don't think we _have_ run into any nasty surprises," put in Gresh. "If we hadn't run into Carl here, who knows what might have happened?"

"Um, perhaps we wouldn't have been driven into a terrible snowstorm and frozen our claws off, _and_ I wouldn't have to give Carl any information," suggested Tarduk dryly.

"Forget I said anything," Raanu sighed. "Get yourselves into our transport."

* * *

They had rumbled on the rocky, icy road for a while when the sand stalkers started snorting and tossing their heads.

"Great," groaned Kiina. "What's happened _now?_" She readied her trident and climbed out of the vehicle. Before her was a stunningly green vista-a grove of trees right smack in their path. She frowned. _We haven't reached Bota Magna yet. So what are these doing here? Does Carl know not to drive into trees?_

The trees in question suddenly stiffened. As one, gleaming swords popped out of their branches.


	7. Day 4,2

Day 4-Part 2

Carl did try to refrain from laughing at the expression on the poor jungle Agori's face. It didn't work. Why, he must think that the ghosts of his (granted, not-so-distant) past have come back to haunt him!

"What are you?" Kiina stuttered, having recovered, if not quite thoroughly, first.

A metallic, rasping voice answered her. "We are here to serve our lord." As one, the warriors turned and bowed before Carl. He smiled and gestured for them to rise. "Ah, I see you've met my loyal soldiers."

"Loyal soldiers?" Tarduk blurted out disbelievingly. "I thought you bound and killed them with _trees!_"

"Little Agori, seeing is _not_ believing," chided the Element Lord. "They merely need to rest for a few years each millennium. Why, they are as must jungle tribe as you and I."

"Er…whatever," Tarduk gave up. Whatever Carl said, the plant-bound soldiers were still creeping him out.

"So are they going to help us?" Gresh asked brightly.

"Of course. Commander Twigs, please dispatch ten soldiers to scout ahead for us."

A leafy warrior saluted him. "Yes, sir!" Then turned to his troops and barked, "Serial number one to ten, get in line here! You are to scout ahead to…" the commander trailed off.

"To Bota Magna," Carl supplied. Twigs ordered, "You are to scout the section of Bota Magna before us and report back to me in four hours. After that, we will either look for you…or leave you for dead. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" The ten soldiers turned and marched in formation to the Great Forest.

Their lord watched them go with satisfaction. A second later, they disappeared!

"Did you see that?" Berix was the first to notice.

"See what?" Ackar had been looking the other way. "I don't see anything."

"Exactly!" cried Carl. "We can't see a thing. Everyone, on the road! Trail them!" The original travelers got into their vehicle and gunned the engine, with a whole contingent of soldiers racing after them.

* * *

They came upon a huge, yawning crevasse about a hundred meters deep. Two-thirds down the glistening walls was a ledge. Eight of the soldiers were on the platform, and the rest were in the process of being hoisted up.

"What did I tell you about the canyons?" Tarduk asked Raanu smugly.

"That they're death defying," he snorted. "Like they are. _If _they really were, the poor soldiers wouldn't be alive now."

"Why not?" the jungle Agori said, surprised. "Of _course_ they're still alive. Living is defying death, is it not?"

"I wonder what you've filled your brain with," Raanu muttered. "It doesn't seem to be working right."

"I heard that!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Carl knelt on the edge of the canyon and grew a plant ladder that reached the stranded soldiers. He willed the vine to dig its roots into the walls, then gestured for the soldiers to climb up, which they promptly did.

"Why would the lot of you fall into something that big?" demanded Carl.

One of the soldiers answered him. "Sir, there was something stretched over it, so it looked like a normal slab of ice-until we fell into it."

Carl, cursing, walked over to inspect it for himself. There were a few nails around the mouth of the canyon, with ripped materiel still pinned under it. Try as he might, he couldn't figure out what it was made of. "No trace of them," he finally said. "Soldiers, march in front of us. Get out of this accursed mountain before nightfall."

"May I ask you," Raanu poked Carl in the shoulder to get his attention, quite a feat because the Element Lord was rather taller than him. "Just _how_ are we going to make a camp that will accommodate so many beings?"

Carl gestured to the lush vegetation around them. They had stopped when the light faded to practically nothing. "See? Everywhere, there is my element. I can make a shelter for us, easy." He concentrated, and the trees around the clearing started to bend into the shape of a long tent. Leafy vines moved to fill the gaps. "It won't even let rain through," the lord of the jungle said proudly. Fruits grew on the twisted branches.

The village elder shrugged. "Okay, what you said," he turned to the throng of beings. "Berix?" The water Agori turned. "Get started on the map!"


	8. Day 5

Day 5-Part 1

Ackar slowly became aware of a soft tapping noise above his head, on the－ceiling? He sat up, marveling at the rain pelting the green canopy. _Rain._ Wait a minute, where was he? The annual rainfall of Bara Magna was practically zero. Not to mention that this was supposed to be the dry season. He looked around, and the details suddenly came flooding back to him－element lords, plant soldiers, _Bota Magna_, a really big hole on the ground－just as he realized that he ached all over. Something about using his powers too much? Right. _Confound it all, I _am _getting old._

After a short while on the road, it became apparent that that their (granted, new and updated) caravan wasn't going to make it through easily(what else is new?). The underbrush was simply too thick. Even with the contingent of soldiers marching ahead.

Of course, this was when having a－friendly? Hopefully－element lord nearby, who just happens to control plant life, paid off. As soon as Carl noticed that they were slogging through a jungle rather like they were actually slogging through mud, he made the plants bend out of their way.

That seemed to do the trick.

A while after they had broken the lunch camp, all the travelers' ears were assaulted with a loud buzzing noise, seemingly telepathic.

"Have you any ideas as to why my ear feels like it's been stuck into a hornets' nest?" Berix was asking Tarduk.

"Great beings only knows," came the irritated reply. "Although, unfortunately, I seem to be afflicted with the same malady as you."

"Something is wrong here," said Carl. The element lord had scrunched up his face in thought. "I do seem to recall this feeling…" He brightened. "Yes, of course! We're feeling electrical interference!"

"And what is elevational interference?" asked Berix.

"It's _electrical _interference," the element lord corrected him. "Have you ever heard of electricity?"

The rest of them shook their heads.

"Ah, yes," Carl nodded thoughtfully. "You lost a lot of your technology after the Shattering."

"Which you were responsible for," Kiina pointed out dryly.

He pretended not to hear her. "What I'm trying to say is, you－that is to say, _we_－used to have a very useful source of energy, called electricity. It could be used to do various interesting things, like lighting, powering robots, and the like.

But since the Shattering, the only beings on Spherus Magna that can still manipulate it are－"

They came into sight of a huge fortress, brisling with unknown devices.

"－the Great Beings themselves."


	9. Day 5,2

Day 5-Part 2

The fortress－if it could be termed that, since it was rather grander than most－was spherical in shape, though half of it appeared to be underground. Still, the half that was showing was at least thirty bio tall. The surface was dull silver, probably designed to absorb any unwanted light to stop its gleam from attracting undue attention.

There were rings of an opaque, glassy substance two bio wide every third bio or so. They were overshadowed by jutting triangular shades. Interspersed randomly on the dome's surface were faint round outlines. The top of the dome was crowned by a metal spike about four bio tall, which had vines twined around it, although no dirt was visible. The electric buzzing seemed to originate from it.

On the whole, it looked rather like a silver thornax fruit that had broken a few spikes and gotten half-buried in the dirt.

The soldiers had stopped in their tracks before the rest of the convoy. Which were also staring at the magnificent architectural wonder.

Tarduk let out a low whistle. "Wooow. I have to say, this place is as impressive as the valley of the Great Beings! Only worse for your auditory reception. Much worse, I should say."

"Hello, have you been listening to me?" asked Carl. "This. Is. A. Fortress. Of. The. Great. Beings."

"I know what you said," came the reply. "Now I can safely say that I've been to at least two sites of ancient power and technology. And do I hear you calling _them_ by their correct name, not once, but twice?"

"Yes, you did," grumbled the Element Lord. He turned to his troops and barked out, "Retreat. Immediately. We have to find another place to camp. Unless you're interested in losing your hearing."

"Aren't we going in there?" Berix asked.

"_No_," Carl said firmly. "Trust me, you do _not_ want to be trapped in their own laboratory with those guys."

"Please?" Tarduk put in.

Raanu beat Carl to the punch. "Bara Magnans, emergency meeting _now_." Carl watched, amused, as the six original travelers huddled together to discuss their next step.

***

"We're going," announced Raanu. "With, or without you. Of course, it would be better if you, ah, agreed to go with us."

"You're going?" asked Carl incredulously. "Have you any idea just exactly _how_ dangerous it is for you to enter the Great Mess-Ups' lair?"

"Of course," the village elder answered. "But for the sake of knowledge, that is a risk we're willing to take. Oh, and you should remember that Tarduk promised you information about the GBs if you'll see us through our quest."

"How could I forget?" groaned Carl. "It is turning out to be one of the most ridiculous mistakes I have ever made."

"Are you going?"

A long pause. Then a sigh. "Great. I suppose I did give my word. I'll go with you on your little suicide mission disguised as an exploring trip. We'll camp here and go exploring tomorrow at first light."

***

Perched on a nearby tree branch, a being smiled. _Ah, there they go. My masters will be ever so pleased. I wonder when they will notice that none of them, save the two lunatic Agori, really wanted to go in that fortress._


	10. Day 6

Day 6-Part 1

_He was shivering. An unseen force had pulled him right out of his sleeping bag at this god-forsaken hour in the night (or was it morning?), and it hadn't given him enough time for his cerebral cells to start working. Suddenly he was standing at the entrance to the Great Beings' fortress._

_ That same invisible force was, evidently, still at work. He really didn't want to go inside that…place, but his feet were shuffling forward in spite of his brain._

Go!

_ And he tumbled forward, into a lightless, yawning chasm._

* * *

"Hey, Gresh," Ackar tapped the Jungle Glatorian's forehead. "Anyone in there? I thought I heard you groaning."

"Did I?" he screwed up his face in thought. "I must've been dreaming. Strangely, though, I don't recall _anything_. I usually remember my dreams in vivid memory."

"Yeah, you told me about that," Ackar said dryly. "Like that time you told me about. You know, attending the marriage ritual of－"

Gresh hurriedly cut him off. "I _told_ you that?"

"Yes, unfortunately, you did. Now get up and have some breakfast. We're headed for the freaky fortress today, if you recall."

* * *

The six travelers and one element lord stood at the entrance to the buzzing fortress. An entire squadron of plant-soldiers stood behind them in tight formation.

"This is it!" Tarduk said excitedly. "We're going in!" He took a step forward but Gresh grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.

"I think you should, at the very least, look around you before you go in," Gresh let go of him. "Let's see if they have a doorbell, shall we?" He stretched out his hand in the direction of the round entrance. There was a repellent force field all around.

"Ring their door, huh?" asked Carl. "They seem to have taken protective measures."

Berix spoke up, just as eager to see inside the Great Beings' lair. "Let's search for a back door, then." He started off toward the left before anyone could stop him. In a few seconds, his voice was heard shouting out, "Hey! Come over here! There _is_ a back door, and it looks like we can enter from here!"

"Wait up, you little fool," Kiina marched to his side. "Do you _want_ to get killed?" Before them was an unremarkable rectangular door with a shiny doorknob.

"No really," admitted the water Agori. He added, "Not yet, at least."

Tarduk strode up to him and they linked arms. As one, before most of the party reached them, they pushed open the door and stepped into－

－darkness.


	11. Day 6,2

Day 6-Part 2

"What-the-!" Tarduk yelped in surprise. His voice was drowned out by Berix, who was screaming at the top of his lungs.

They were falling, falling, into a lightless hole. About thirty seconds later, the rest of the party (including the soldiers) joined them, yelling their heads off as well, at the bottom.

The floor wasn't hard, but then, it wasn't soft, either. It was probably made from some weird materiel that the Great Beings had invented.

After some groping in the dark, Ackar cleared out a space and set his sword ablaze. It brightened the hole considerably, revealing that it was about twenty meters in diameter and Gods knew how deep. The light couldn't reach the ceiling. "Is anyone dead?" the fire Glatorian asked. He thought a bit, then corrected himself, "Is everyone _alive_?"

There were a few groans of assent. Ackar willed the flame to blaze higher, showing Berix, Tarduk, Gresh, Kiina, Carl, Raanu, and a whole lot of soldiers. They all seemed to be unharmed. He announced, "Okay. Everyone's fine. Now what?"

Carl stood, a resigned look on his face. "It looks like the Great Mess-Ups have got the best of us."

"They have," agreed Berix. He jumped up and down. "Now, what I'd like to know is, just _what _is the floor made of?"

Kiina grabbed his arm. "Do you _want_ to get us killed? Great Beings know what might be looking down at us right now, seeing if we're worth killing!"

A male-ish voice boomed out from all sides. "Travelers, state your business."

"Or what?" Berix shook himself loose.

"Or you will be sentenced to an excruciatingly painful death."

Berix whispered in Kiina's ear, "Gods! You're right!"

She grimaced at him, waiting for the voice to continue.

"Who are you?" called Raanu. "_What_ are you?"

The voice ignored them. There was a _click_, and the walls around them were bristling with weapons. "State your business, or we fire. Three, two…"

"All right, all right!" Raanu yelped. "No need for violence! We're just travelers on our way to go round Spherus Magna. We just happened to bump into this fortress, and it seemed a good idea to check it out."

The voice paused. The weaponry receded into their designated holes. "Then you are the ones we have been waiting for. Come." Around them, a wind howled.

* * *

Gresh looked up and blinked. They were now in a white, airy chamber, approximately the same size at the hole they had just been in. "_Now_ where are we?" he asked no one in particular.

Two identical beings stepped out to greet them. They were roughly the same size as a Glatorian, but they wore matching black robes made out of cloth.

"You are in our fortress," chirped the first one. It had a feminine voice.

"And we are, of course, Great Beings," clarified the second one. "So don't try anything funny, Carl. We know all about your powers."

Carl winced as the tendrils of power he had been sending out to scout for nearby plants were shot back at him.

The first Great Being started again. "And of course, you want to know who we are. Don't turn, Berix, I do mean you. Well, as she already said, we're Great Beings. You may call us," she gestured to herself and the other one. "Isabel and Elizabeth."

Before anyone reacted, Elizabeth piped up. "Oh, and if you're wondering just _what_ you're doing here, we'll tell you tomorrow. Now, we have…things to do. Carl, you'll find that you can grow food, but nothing else." She snapped her fingers.

They were in another different room. This one had the feel of an, albeit comfortable, prison.

One of the Great Beings' voices rang out. "Good night!"


	12. Day 7

Day 7-Part 1

A blast of cold air rushed into the room, accompanied by a high trilling voice. "Good mooorning!" Isabel and Elizabeth appeared together.

Carl yawned and sat up, looking around. Something was not right. He bolted to his feet. "Hey, where the heck have my soldiers gone?" he demanded, forgetting, in his anger, the power of the two beings before him. No _wonder_ it seemed much colder than last night!

Elizabeth chuckled. "My, my! This is our home you're staying in, so let's be a bit more polite, shall we?"

The element lord took a deep breath. He had forgotten just how _annoying _the Great Mess-ups were, in addition to being mess-ups. Especially the female ones. "Okay. Where are my plant-soldiers?" He deliberately took special care enunciating each syllable.

"Don't worry, they're fine," Isabel reassured him. "We sent them back into the woods after breakfast."

"Since they aren't needed here," Elizabeth clarified. "The way _you_ are."

Carl blanched. Being _needed_ by a Great Mess-up was NEVER a good thing. And the way she said it…it sent his insides crawling.

The rest of the travelers had woken up as well, yawning and blinking.

"Where's breakfast?" Tarduk mumbled sleepily. He hadn't registered the fact that there was a pair of Great Beings in the room yet.

"Oh, breakfast," said Isabel airily. "Hasn't Carl been feeding you? Never mind, you must be tired of fruit already. We'll send breakfast to you in, say," she snapped her fingers. The sound reverberated through the room, sounding twice as loud. "Five minutes."

Carl said hurriedly, "There's no need to! Besides, who knows what they've added to the food?" He said to Tarduk.

Elizabeth gazed at him disapprovingly. "Do you think that's wise?" The ground rumbled.

"Okay, okay," Carl held up his hands in exasperation. "I'll shut up now." He gave Elizabeth one last withering glare and folded his arms.

A strange-looking metal cart rolled into the room. On it were seven breakfast trays, each laden with sandwiches and tea.

Isabel gestured for them to take one tray each. "You have thirty minutes, then we'll get down to business."

* * *

Berix sighed and patted his stomach contentedly. The Great Beings' food was _good_, drugged or not. Carl had stubbornly refused to eat his, insisting on ingesting his own fruit, so Berix had happily polished off his portion as well.

An inflectionless voice rang through the room. "Tele-transporting in five…four…"

"Hey!" exclaimed Tarduk. "They've got the decency to warn us now!"

"…one!" The room went dark, and there was a queer feeling of vertigo in everyone. Then the light flicked back on and they were in a conference room, with Isabel and Elizabeth sitting at the head of the table.

"Come and sit here," Isabel gestured to the seven chairs nearest her. They glowed faintly.

Berix was intrigued. He spoke up without thinking, "Cool! How do you do that?"

She smiled. It made her face look rather pretty for a moment. Her finger twitched, and the chairs glowed even more brightly. "Motion sensors, of course."

The others nervously filed into their seats. They all tried, naturally enough, to sit as far away from the Great Beings as possible, except for Berix and Tarduk. They ended up right beside Isabel and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth's gaze swept around the room. "Good. You're all here. Now, as we've told you, we have a rather…interesting…"

"Business proposition," finished Isabel. She looked at the Bara Magnans expectantly.

Raanu groaned inwardly. _Like we had a choice! These girls could kill us all with a snap of their fingers, I'm sure!_ "Well, what is it?" he said as unpleasantly as he could.

The Great Beings spoke in chorus. "We need you to go to another world!"


	13. Day 7,2

Day 7-Part 2

There were, fittingly enough, gasps of horror and astonishment around the table. Ackar tapped his ears to make sure they were working properly, then leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. "Did you just say _go to another world_?"

Isabel nodded excitedly. "Just think! What a wonderful opportunity!"

Carl said acidly. "Exactly. We can _think._"

Raanu, who was sitting next to him, pulled him down to whisper in his ear, "We all know you can think. Now, will you please calm down and remember that those two witches in front of us are actually Great Beings?"

The element lord took a deep breath. In…out…calm down. He spoke up again. "Okay, madams, pray tell us _exactly_ what you want us to do."

Elizabeth nodded. "Fair enough. You should be able to know this much."

The other Great Being touched a contact patch on the table. The chairs immediately swung towards her. "Now, you may have heard from the biomechanical creatures that your Mata Nui used to govern that there is a Mask of Life for their universe."

"Been there, done that," said Kiina sadly. She hadn't gotten over the fact that Mata Nui had chosen to leave them and go to sleep inside a shiny gold _mask_ properly yet.

"Good," Isabel took up the narrative. "When it was first created, none of us had any idea just how powerful it could be. One of us, rather unwisely, chose to tamper with it. In short, the mask drove him mad. We had to shut him up, send him into exile, it was that bad."

There was a hint of regret on Elizabeth's face as she continued. "And now he has disappeared, from right under our noses! At least, we know (or at least we think we do) where he has vanished off to. We have full color/sound surveillance cameras in his cell, see. The last we saw of him, he was conversing with a whole host of ridiculously powerful beings from the MU…then they all vanished into thin air."

"One of them had a Mask of Dimensional Gates fused to his face," Isabel explained. There was visible anxiety showing on her face now. "And it was fused to him with Energized Protodermis. You know, the stuff that started your pointless war and tore our planet to shreds?"

Carl groaned. "And just when I was starting to forget it, too. Don't remind me."

A hint of amusement played across Elizabeth's face at the sight of him. "Predictably, the being with the mask－who, rather unfortunately, happens to be hopelessly insane－cannot control it at _all._"

"To sum it all up, we _need_ a group of 'heroes' to chase after them, stop them from mercilessly rampaging through other worlds," Isabel finally finished, her mouth set in a grim line.


	14. Day 7,3

Day 7-Part 3

"No can do," Carl said firmly, crossing his arms. "You're sending us all off on a wild snipe-chase with almost definitely fatal consequences. What's in it for us?"

"Ah, motivation," said Elizabeth. "Why do I think that saying you have no choice and are completely in our power will have no effect?"

Carl stared stonily at her.

Isabel sighed. "I _knew_ this would happen, Lizzy. Don't you remember his _personality?_" She turned and looked Carl straight in the eye. "Now, there is a reason I call this a 'business proposition' and not a 'command'. We do intend to bargain with you. Shall we say that, if you get back within a week with the intended quarry, we'll see that you get to choose the best possible place on Spherus Magna, and we'll give the lot of you a complete one-day air tour of the planet to confirm your decision? We do have a host of interesting transportation, after all."

The lord of the green opened his mouth to speak, but was quickly stopped by his fellow adventurers.

"This is the best deal we're gonna get, so will you please shut yourself up and refrain from arguing with them?" Kiina hissed angrily into his ear.

"Fine," Carl said irritably. "I'm not a complete boffin." Louder, he announced, "Fine, we accept your offer. But we need a signed contract."

Kiina rolled her eyes. _Really, what is that guy's head filled with? Philosophical discussions? No, that didn't fit._

"Done," said Isabel. She tapped the contact patch again. A roll of parchment rolled out of a slot at the underside of the table. She unrolled it and spread it out on the table for all to see. It had beautiful silver and gold gilt around the sides. There was ornate black calligraphy on it. She looked over it, nodded, and signed 'Isabel Crealla' in nice handwriting, then passed it to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth swept over the text, signing 'Elizabeth Crealla' next to the previous signature with a flourish. Their handwriting looked rather similar. She handed the scroll and the writing implement to Carl.

One by one, the travelers signed it. They had no choice. Raanu took one last look and gave the scroll back to Isabel.

The Great Being stuck the scroll back into the slot, touched the contact, and took it out again. She opened a nearby compartment and took out and identical one. Carl reached for it. Isabel told him, "Here, this is your version. Take a look at it, and if there's no problem, keep it."

"You know what the pair of you reminds me of?" Kiina piped up suddenly. The two Great Beings looked at her. She continued, undaunted. "Me, when I was little. Whenever I got into trouble, I would usually find or force someone to bail me out. Luckily, I grew out of it, or I'm pretty sure I would have no friends now."

Isabel laughed. "You are right on target! I applaud your powers of observation." She tucked the original scroll into her robe.

"Trust you to guess that we were in charge of him," Elizabeth added.

Tarduk stared at them in amazement. "There are Great Being Higher Ups who will punish you?" he blurted out.

They grinned at him. "Not telling," said Isabel cheerfully. She produced a whirling model of The Galaxy. "Now, everyone, listen here. You are going to start with world One-A, in which…"

* * *

Isabel sat on the edge of her luxurious bed. There was, apparently, no one in the room with her. However, the Great Being knew better. She called out softly, "Loza, I know you're there. You can come out now, I'm all alone."

A winged being her size alighted opposite her. He grumbled, "And I thought I had stealth, along with Psionics, down pat."

She grinned. "Thanks for sending them here. Whatever you want, as long as it is in my power, I'll grant you."

It was his turn to smile.


	15. Day 8,1

Day 8-Part 1

_We are to travel by a special 'dimensional gate', infused with the power of the Olmak, which are both, of course, of the Great Beings' creation. It is automatically set to send us to another world every twenty-four hours._

_Isabel gave the remote to Raanu. It could send us to the 'numbered' worlds like a remote control. But we have to all be in physical contact when he pushes the buttons, for all of us to be able to go together._

_There is another device, called the 'wireless phone' by them, which can be used to contact the Great Beings from anywhere, everywhere. It was to be used sparingly, and Kiina got handed the job of carrying it._

_Both of the devices are small, about palm-sized, were shock/water-proof, and could be stored in a compartment on our armor. They seem really useful._

_Looks like the Great Beings' drive for invention sometimes pays off…_

Gresh woke up, feeling decidedly unrested. During the course of yesterday's afternoon, the two Great Beings had gone over a detailed review of their mission, so many times that he had dreamed of it all through the night. They were given detailed descriptions of all the Matoran Universe inhabitants. Their powers were…intriguing, to say the least.

A being of shadow? How was that possible? A being that controlled creation? Well, he sounded like a god. Another powerful being that was fused with the essence of the being of shadow? _That_ sounded disturbing, to say the least. How the seven of them－even with one being an Element Lord－were supposed to capture the MU inhabitants and bring them back to their proper dimension was beyond the jungle Glatorian.

They had been whisked into another room after finishing a sumptuous dinner last night. There were seven beds, one for each of them. And there were proper _bathrooms_. Kiina, of course, was delighted.

As she put it, "At last! No need to wear myself out, or worry about six pairs of prying eyes!" Gresh had rolled his eyes at that.

But they were all thankful for small conveniences. After all, who knew just what their living conditions would be like for the next few days?

_Stop thinking, it's time to get up,_ he told himself. He rolled up the covers and sat up on the bed. Berix was furiously scribbling on his map in the bed next to his, presumably recording everything about the GB's fortress that he could, but everyone else was fast asleep.

Berix seemed very absorbed in his work, so Gresh was loathe to touch him, but he still tapped the water Agori on the shoulder and asked him, ":Hey, Berix, do you have the time?"

The little scavenger had apparently not noticed that another of his companions was awake as well, for he jumped and shrieked in surprise before turning around and seeing that it was just Gresh.

"Oh, it's you," he said crossly, returning to his writing. He jabbed a finger at the ceiling without looking up. "There's a clock on the wall."

It appeared to be completely insubstantial, a wall of light with the fingers of the clock pointing towards six and twelve. _ Hmm, it looks like six in the morning, _Gresh decided. Just as he was about to disrupt Berix further by asking him if he knew when they were going to get fed, the door burst open.

The two Great Beings they'd encountered burst into the room, followed by a moving cart with seven packs on it. Behind was what looked like miniature mobile hat rack with plates balanced on each spike.

Isabel took out a device and shook it. Instantly, the other five sleeping travelers were roused from their sweet dreams, groaning and rubbing their eyes.

Berix finally put away his map and switched back into his normal 'curious' mode. "What's that?" he asked the Great Being.

She held up the white, shiny, fruit-shaped gadget up for him to see. "It's a portable wireless low-frequency wake-up caller."

"Oh."

"Okay, now that we're all awake and alert, let's get ready for the adventure of your lives!" Elizabeth announced cheerfully. "We'll give you an hour to, I don't know, eat and clean., maybe. Then we'll be back with instructions."

After indulging in a toilet with running water for the last time in the foreseeable future and finishing the Great Beings' strange food, the adventurers sat around waiting for the little hand to reach seven.

Right on cue, the Great Beings appeared once more.

"The first world you're going to is World 2A, which is very similar to this one," Isabel started excitedly. "Remember how to use your gadgets! They're your _lifelines_, you have to remember!"

Elizabeth smiled. "A world a day, keeps boredom at bay!" She brought her hands together with a sweeping motion, and the six of them were instantly pushed together by an unseen force.

The other Great Being bent forward and indicated the buttons to Raanu. Feeling rather like he was saying goodbye to the world as he knew it, the village elder had no choice but to press the little button.

_What have I done?_


End file.
